29/08/2024
๐ง๐ New show on No-S**t Radio D.J Scoopwibbler with Genius Underdogs and Apricity . Link in the comments to listen straight away and his blog is here ๐ฝ
Adler suggested that when people experience feelings of inferiority, they automatically feel a compensatory need to strive for superiority. As a result, people will push themselves to overcome their weaknesses and achieve their goals.
Being unable to play any musical instrument - including the spoons - I had to find another way to satisfy my voracious curiosity. For me, it has always been nature and music. Growing up on the largest council estate in Europe, Chelmsley Wood, without a car, meant we had little access to green areas, art, music, or culture. Later, I discovered the immense anthropological richness of the people of Birmingham. It was all there โ one just had to dig it out.
Mum and Dad (only ever known as Gil), were into rock โnโ roll in a big way - my mum went out with the lead singer of the Hollies and hung about with Eric Burden, The Stones and The Who, seeing all their shows in crappy hotels.
Gil was a hairy arsed builder from a huge Irish family. With a wayward mother and a very elderly father, he had no formal schooling and started working from a very early age. A true teddy boy, he was a hysterical and urbane storyteller and joker, a real looker! Despite the limited opportunities they got on their tip toes and built us all amazing lives and wondrous memories,
All that stuff rubbed off on my three brothers and I and we gone off to do cool things of enduring value. My folksโ passion for innovation was the spark for me and had a major impact on my interest in music. The search for genius underdogs - like early Dylan - rebuffing the constant stream of naysayers.
Itโs not that I donโt like music from overdogs - case in point, axiomatically, The Rolling Stones are almost universally believed to be one of the greatest bands of all time but those guys are adequately covered.
I believe being born in 1968, really shaped me. As Malcolm Gladwell eloquently attacks the rebus in โThe Outliersโ, where, when and how you were born and raised, has the profoundest effect on your trajectory in life.
By 1975 the macroeconomic backdrop was heinous, triggered by, surprise, surprise another oil price shock, leading to 24% inflation and 9% unemployment. Newly elected Harold Wilson, presiding over the smallest margin of 3 seats in UK political history, had inherited Ted Heathโs woeful economy and with GDP shrinking to -1.5%, there were scant prospects of a recovery, any time soon.
So the deep recession was biting hard, particularly in the building trade ร la Alan Bleasdaleโs fabulous โBoys from the Black Stuffโ, which we huddled around watching, not knowing what was coming next.
For a proud, hard-working Irish family the loss of work was a killer.
It meant queuing at the clothes warehouse, complaining about the awful odour and shabbiness of the outfits we had to wear, forced into the shaming line, clutching a free school meal voucher whilst trying to avoid eye contact with the usual bullies. This was moving into Yosser territory!
Gil sorted the latter problem out by signing us up immediately (and irreversibly - there was no discussion back then!) with the local boxing club - shout out to Kenny Williams and Kingshurst ABC, who kept dozens of lads like us on the straight and narrow.
So spotting and helping underdogs has become my unshakeable hangup and salvation. Over the last 45 y I have been listening, collecting (my wife calls it hoarding!), attending and spinning underdog music at shows far and wide - even doing a bit of magic for the Fontaines when I passed a ยฃ2 coin through their debut LP at Rough Trade, Bristol!
I was kicked out of sixth form and told I'd never achieve anything. However, I excelled in a science BTEC, studied Microbiology at Aberystwyth, and earned a PhD at UWE, Bristol. I published nearly a dozen research papers and started a biotech company in Saanichton, BC, securing World and European theoretical patents for a handheld pollutant / medical sensor.
Startups are volatile and expensive, so I transitioned to finance. I became a triple fellow in 10 years, earned a Master's in Business Finance from MMU, and built and sold a financial services and fintech company, helping hundreds gain financial clarity and confidence while supporting those less fortunate.
Iโm an implacable collector - looking for solar plexus hitting, spellbinding music. Music that coruscates like a diamond in a dung pile. Pure magic - stuff thatโs perpetually contemporary - irrespective of when it was recorded. The search is constantly on for the genius underdog that delivers apricity, that lasts.
The Germans call it the Eierlegende Wollmilchsau, the pig that also gives you milk, wool and eggs. Music that transcends time, versus the disposable stuff thatโs infectious but tends to diminish, over time.
Whatโs the deal?
A whirligig odyssey around the globe to share a curated playlist of tantalising, transportive music.
The show will be as disciplined as the flight path of a ping pong ball down a disused 14 storey NCP concrete car park. No set genres, countries or movements. The express aim is to give something a little different. To help you find genius underdogs.
We will cover almost anything - from continuous and found music, spiritual jazz and BCM to alt.country, indie, no wave and foot-hop (I made that up).
We will start off with a deep-dive into EOTR (End of the Road Festival); past and present. Looking for the most devastating acts who have graced the stages at this great festival. The acts who have or intend to create searing, intransigent, novel and passionate music. The lost, the found and the in between - fallen down dusty floorboards. Like biro pen tops and safety clips under a Bosch microwave.
Strap in. Zone out. And breathe โฆ cos the rain ALWAYS comes too soon!
Finally, heads up, I am an unapologetic music geek, and I'll be sharing a cascade of connections and fascinating coincidences with you. Expect everything from the significance of certain numbers to how the band chose their name, right down to the singer's favourite cheese and Helta Skelter configuration.
https://www.mixcloud.com/NoS**tVenne/apricity-with-dj-scoopwibbler/
